Abstract

GOMIZ LEON, Juan José. Goya and his lower urinary tract symptoms in Bordeaux, 1825. Arch. Esp. Urol. [online]. 2007, vol.60, n.8, pp.917-930. ISSN 0004-0614.

The famous painter Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) suffered during his life one or several diseases, the nature of which has not been determined with certainty. The partially documented morbid episodes that happened during the years 1792-1793 in Seville and Cadiz, 1819 in Madrid, and 1825 in Bordeaux could be related. In the latter one, the urological signs and symptoms the distinguished patient presented have been demonstrated. The objective of this paper is to propose the hypothesis of neurosyphilis’ dorsal tabes responsible for the voiding disorders he presented in Bordeaux in the spring of 1825, having as a resource Goya’s "diplomatario", with the letters and documents that have been collected and made known to date, with the purpose of using an inductive-deductive method for their study and interpretation, setting an interrelation between these valuable sources with both the medical knowledge of the period and the current, particularly in urological features, and reviewing the available bibliography on that topic, with the natural reserve about giving a retrospective diagnosis which cannot be completely true due to its inherent characteristics. In the same way, and as a complement, we include a brief review of some circumstances and characters that surrounded the artist in France to help to incardinate and better understand the personality of Goya, already old and sick at that time.

Keywords : Goya; Syphilis; Neurogenic bladder; Saturnism; History of Urology.

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